The Nightmare

First exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1782, Fuseli's "The Nightmare" marked a radical break with the then-dominant Neoclassicism. The work belongs to the context of "Sturm und Drang" and foreshadows Romanticism through its exploration of the irrational and the dark corners of the human soul. Fuseli does not paint a classical historical or mythological scene, but rather the subjective experience of nocturnal anguish. It is a work that captures the moment when reason falls asleep to give way to monsters, a theme that would later resonate in Goya's work. The explanation of the myth is based on Germanic and Scandinavian folklore regarding the incubus and the "Mara." The incubus is a male demon believed to lie upon sleepers to oppress them or have sexual intercourse with them. The term "nightmare" itself derives from "mare," an evil spirit that suffocates its victims. Fuseli gives body to these ancestral fears by materializing the demon in a simian and grotesque form. The myth here is no longer a distant fable, but a palpable physiological and psychic reality, transforming a superstition into a clinical study of sleep paralysis. Technically, Fuseli uses dramatic chiaroscuro to isolate the luminous female figure from the dark chaos surrounding her. The contrast between the ivory-white, almost ethereal body and the earthy tones of the demon creates an unbearable visual tension. The mare, although her name suggests a pun on "nightmare," was not present in the early sketches but reinforces the theatrical and spectral aspect with its chalky whiteness and vacant stare. The brushwork is fluid, almost hasty in the backgrounds, to accentuate the vaporous and unstable nature of the oneiric vision. Psychologically, the work is of abyssal complexity. It deals with sexual vulnerability and repressed desire. The woman's posture, with her head thrown back and arms dangling, suggests a state between ecstasy and agony, evoking a form of symbolic death. Fuseli projects his own personal obsessions, notably his unrequited passion for Anna Landolt, whose portrait was on the reverse of the original canvas. It is a pre-Freudian work that explores the libido as a dark and destructive force, making the viewer a complicit voyeur of this shadow theater. The mare and the incubus become projections of the tormented unconscious.